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American Who Waged ‘Media Jihad’ Is Said to Be Killed in Awlaki Strike

Yemen’s official news agency reported that the young Web-savvy American thought to be behind Inspire, a magazine for Al Qaeda, was killed in the same Friday strike that killed the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

The report, citing an unnamed defense official, said the man, Samir Khan, was killed in the strike, along with two other people, and identified him as an American citizen and a computer specialist. The report was repeated by a Yemeni official on Twitter:

Mr. Khan, 25, was an enthusiast of jihad who lived with his parents in North Carolina as recently as four years ago, before leaving the United States for Yemen in 2009, where he is thought to have started Inspire magazine.

Mr. Khan, who was born in Saudi Arabia and grew up in Queens, is an unlikely foot soldier in what Al Qaeda calls the “Islamic jihadi media.” He has grown up in middle-class America and wrestles with his worried parents about his religious fervor. Yet he is stubborn. “I will do my best to speak the truth, and even if it annoys the disbelievers, the truth must be preached,” Mr. Khan said in an interview.

While there is nothing to suggest that Mr. Khan is operating in concert with militant leaders, or breaking any laws, he is part of a growing constellation of apparently independent media operators who are broadcasting the message of Al Qaeda and other groups, a message that is increasingly devised, translated and aimed for a Western audience.

In the years since that interview was conducted, Mr. Khan became a strong part of the information arm of the terror network’s Yemen affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He proclaimed, in an early edition of the Qaeda magazine, that “I am proud to be a traitor,” according to an ABC News report from 2010.

Back in America, I knew the media jihad was important to the mujahidin; but I just wasn’t able to put my finger on how important it was to them. Just then a brother intervened and confirmed, “A powerful media production is as hard hitting as an operation in America.” It was the first time I met individuals who were so ideologically enveloped in the media effort against America and the West. It was also the first time that my mind opened up to the comprehensiveness of the media jihad highlighting its serious authority and impact upon the world.

He ended with another reference to his time in the United States, a direct bid to the English-speaking Muslims that the magazine was intended to attract to the extremist group:

I’ve personally attended mosques in over 10 states in America; and in all of them, one will always be able to categorize a large group of Muslims as having anti-American sentiments even if they aren’t that practicing. If I were to add the experiences of my friends who visited mosques in other parts of the country, it really becomes clear just how far reaching this is. This is America; how about then Europe and the Muslim world at large? The media conflict is the symbol of Islam’s nascency in the modern world.

Correction: September 30, 2011An earlier version of this post misstated the year of Mr. Khan's birth. According to North Carolina court records, he was born in December 1985, not in 1986.

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